North Island College’s Artist Talk is returning for the winter 2021 season with a new, virtual format.
The series kicks off with artist, writer and arts educator Jim Holyoak, who will speak this coming Monday, Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. His practice is comprised of drawing, ink-painting, artists’ books and room-sized drawing installations.
Artist Talk presentations offer insight into each artist’s professional art practice. The talks are one hour in length followed by a short Q&A period. The winter 2021 series will be held online via Zoom, with a range of dates and times chosen to align with NIC Fine Arts and Digital Design and Development classes.
“One of the advantages to moving to an online format is the flexibility it allows, both in terms of dates and times, but also accessibility for people outside the Comox Valley,” said Vipond. “We invite artists and those interested in art from across Vancouver Island and beyond to join us to hear these incredible artists speak about their practice.”
The NIC Artist Talk Series invites contemporary Canadian artists to speak about their professional art practice.
Artists must learn how to navigate the infrastructure of the visual art world — how to develop a robust studio practice, find their own voice within arts-based research, create successful applications for grants, exhibitions and residencies, and cultivate relationships with fellow artists and curators to develop collaborative work and gallery shows.
The career path of a professional artist is unique to the individual, the Artist Talks offer insight on how to navigate the various obstacles and seek opportunities.
The second artist in the winter series is Campbell River’s own Sonny Assu.
Assu’s artistic practice is diverse, spanning painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and printmaking. He negotiates Western and Kwakwaka’wakw principles of art making as a means of exploring his family history and the experiences of being an Indigenous person in the colonial state of Canada.
Assu received his BFA from the Emily Carr University in 2002 and was the recipient of their distinguished alumni award in 2006. He received the BC Creative Achievement Award in First Nations art in 2011 and was thrice long-listed for the Sobey Art Award. He received his MFA from Concordia University in 2017 and was one of the Laureates for the 2017 REVEAL - Indigenous Art Awards.
His work has been accepted into the National Gallery of Canada, Seattle Art Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Burke Museum at the University of Washington, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Hydro Quebec, Lotto Quebec and in various other public and private collections across Canada, the United States and the UK.
His NIC Artist Talk is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m.
The talks are free to attend via Zoom. The full list of speakers and schedule, as well as registration for the events, can be found at nicart.tickit.ca
Or you can just click this link.
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